Work

DAILY BYTE

A few years ago when my father, who is a self-proclaimed work-a-holic, started to consider going into retirement, for Christmas I got him the National Geographic Coffee Table Book called Work. It's a collection of photographs from all around the world of people doing different jobs - some, perhaps, more enviable than others...

My dad was coming to a point in his life where he was getting quite pensive in thinking back on the work he had done, wondering if it had been done well and life lived to the fullest, and he was considering making some changes in the future kinds of work he planned to do.

I think I was hoping that the pictures would inspire him to view his past and future work through a new lens - perhaps one of gratitude that he had not been required to spend his life doing something like dying lemons yellow so that they would look riper than they actually are - which, I have learned from the article, "37 strange jobs that you can actually make a living at" is actually a real job that people do, as are testing deodorant odors, writing fortune cookie messages, and harvesting venom from snakes.

I suppose the old mantra is true, “It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.”

But, more than just feeling thankful or prideful, I hoped my dad would spend some time wondering if the life of the lemon-sprayer had been less or more fulfilling and prosperous than his own, based on how those lives had been lived and how that work had been done beneath the surface of a job.

What is it about the work that we do that makes it worthwhile and makes us prosperous – whether we are fortune-cookie writers by trade, or preachers, car-guards or builders?

This week, we will spend time exploring the nature of work. What kind of work do you do? Your work might be inside or outside the context of a full time job. It might be inside or outside the walls of a church.

Whatever it may be, do you find the work you have to do fulfilling? Do you think it makes you prosperous?

Particularly as we explore some thoughts from the prophet, Haggai, take some time this week to wonder and ask what God might desire from you in the work you do.

FOCUS READING

2 Thessalonians 2:15-17 (NRSV)

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.